I was sitting in an entrepreneurship conference a few weeks ago, when it felt like someone shined a great big spotlight on me. The speaker was talking about setting goals, something near and dear to my entrepreneurial heart, and he said something unexpected: he didn’t meet any of his goals. Not at year one, not at year five, not even at year ten. But just a few years later, he was talking to hundreds of thousands of people every day, on hundreds of radio stations, through millions of copies of his best-selling books.
What difference does it make if you don’t hit your goals if you end up exceeding your wildest expectations, I wondered.
I’ve been a full-time entrepreneur for only 9 months, less than a year, but I’ve already experienced the dejection and frustration that accompanies building something of out of thin air. I’ve surrounded myself with other entrepreneurs and small business owners, and we spend a lot of time talking each other down from the edge and up from the dark and scary valleys that follow the joyful peaks. No one told me entrepreneurship would be such an emotional roller coaster. But that’s another blog post.
What I realized in that instant I had to jot down immediately, before it was lost:
“You can’t see what your goals will turn into when you’re in the middle of executing them. Don’t stop. You might not hit them when you thought you would. You will hit them if you keep working at them, though.”
Life and business ownership have taught me two immutable truths. One, human potential is immeasurable when you believe in yourself. Two, it’s amazing what you can accomplish when you put your head down, your blinders on, and do the work.
When I start to feel like the road is too long, the goals too grand, the distance too large, I remind myself of those truths.
Keep Your Head Down
When I start to feel dejected, it’s generally because I’ve stopped working, picked my head up, and have started looking around, measuring how far I have left to go. There are times I pick my head up, and am pleasantly surprised. But more and more often, as my business straddles Infancy and Adolescence, I’m frustrated. If you’re not where you want to be, don’t spend time agonizing over it. It just means you have more work to do. Put your head back down and keep going.
Keep Your Blinders On
Distractions are a sure-fire way to drag out accomplishments. Distractions for entrepreneurs usually come in two forms: new ideas and other business owners. Even before I started my business, I kept a journal for all my business ideas. I have logo designs and floor plans for one, a financial plan and business model for another. I have names and trademarks and domains registered. I can’t even bake cookies without wondering if there’s a business model somewhere in it. I allow myself to put in the journal, and that’s it. If it’s good today, it will be good tomorrow. One business is enough for now.
Worse, though, is looking around and seeing other business owners passing you by. Why is their business going so smooth? How did they get all those clients? Why aren’t they having Problem X like I am? Worrying about that stuff is like going to the gym and giving up because some dude is bench-pressing a small person while you’re struggling with 5 lb. dumb bells. Every body is built differently, and businesses are no different. Consistency, smart effort, and time invested are necessary in both. As my fiance (also a business owner) reminds me, if it were easy then everyone would do it.
Besides, you never know what’s really going on in someone else’s business. Just stay focused on your own work.
Do the Work
If your head is down and your blinders are on, there’s only one thing left to do: work. And god knows, if you own a business, you’ve got plenty of it to do. Don’t get discouraged, just keep working. Work on your processes, work on your work flow. Work on your brand values, work on your marketing. Work on perfecting your product or service, work on perfecting your employees. Work on your website, your offices, your computer and filing systems.
Work on every little thing that is part of your business and what makes it operate at the highest level of efficiency and efficacy. Find your weaknesses and then find the solutions. Find your strengths and then elevate them. Do the work that matters, and do it with gusto. Renew your passion daily by remembering what you are responsible for (employees, customers, culture, a product), and why you aren’t sitting in cubicle content with clocking in and clocking out.
Believe Know That You Will Achieve Your Goals
Every now and then, I’ll catch myself wondering if I am naive. If I have set goals that are absolutely ridiculous. If I’m stupid for aspiring to have the kind of business I’m trying to build. Sometimes, I can’t even see the road between here and that business.
Stop.
That kind of thinking is useless. I’m not actually going to give up or stop trying, otherwise I would’ve done it by now. Entrepreneurship is too good, my vision too sweet, what I’ve already built a promise of what’s to come. That kind of thinking will only distract me from what I’m going to do anyway.
Listening to that speaker talk about how he missed his goals, year after year, only to achieve something greater made me realize that when we’re mired down in the doing, in the execution of our goals, it can feel a little more like drowning than swimming. When I feel like I’m floundering, I remind myself that I’m actually moving forward. All I need to do is continue moving forward.
And who knows? You might just exceed your own expectations one day.
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